Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-11-25


| And none, We thought, in all the world wee
happier than we.
Our cattle browsed the summer hills, amid tao
blue grass deep
And nll the shady bottoln-lands were snowy
with our sheep;
Twas like tnle of fairy lore, the life TINT We
lived then,
When WIS barely twenty-sx and you Were
only ten;
Love brought us peace and comfort, till there
rose an evil star,
In the summertime of plenty, when your father
went to war.
Ah Jennie, remember we'll the daY-'twas
Your father he came riding home from town
ono afternoon,
And his face way palo and haggard as b,
reached the or and throw
One ann around Inc, daughter. while he lad
one hand on you;
embrace,
I read the fearful meaning that was writtenjn
his face
felt it in the bounding blood TINT beat against
my breast
needed not u spoken wora-too well k,ew
the rest
And all thut night in dreams heard the tr,mp
And far away saw the flags grow DINNER
down the street;
Twas long ago! but O, my heart has not out
grown the scur
Gods finger put upon it, when your father went
to war.
Then you and were loft We tried a
By hiring help. to scrimp along, but couldn't
make it go;
The spring floods swept away tho corn, the
drouth Of summer dried
Tho grasses on the uplunds, and we had NJ
So we parted with the cattle that we could no
We sold the only team We had, and traded off
the sheep;
And when the winds of autumn shook the pines
about the caves,
And in the woodland hollows piled the brown
October leaves,
When the hazel-nuts were ripening in the old
familiar copse,
And tho wild geese wcdgng southwark, far
above the maplo-topS,
We locked the dear old farmhouse up, and
closed the pasture-bnr,
And moved into tho village, whep your father
went to war.
IN winter came-a drcary rlsnc-~a night of
hopes and fears,
On every hand the widows wept, and fell the
reign of blood and ruin! Every day some
passing train
Brought back load of nlangled men-brought
back the coiiined Slam
And Jennie, O, my Jennie, ere tho SHOWS of
winter passed,
They bore your father back to uS--they brought
him home at last;
They sent him from the frozen hills, beside the
Tennessee,
est love TO be-
They sent him back ruined man for life, alas
my child!
turned away i'll agony, raved os one grown
But why recall the story now? The years have
driftod fur,
And we've got used to trouble since your father
Went to war.
Tho times have changed. We, too, have
changed. Tonight the blue and gray
f1,ai tirns a Nd
puff their hates away
Sit spinning yarns about their camps, until the
drowsy stars
Put out their light and wave "good-nighto
across the twilishts bars.
Although my heart be broken, and although
my hair be white,
And though the yenls have brought me but
disaster in their flight,
am wicked in my weakness, am cruel to
complain,
When yonder patient sufferer sits smiling at
his pain
Sits grooming in the Autumn moon the ballads
made to praise
The ulster OF his daring in the old heroic days
Sits dreaming, jennie, dreaming of the battle
fields that are
The glory of the ages, since your father won't
little while-it won't be long until the SOL
ders come
And bear away their comrade to tho dead
march OF drum,
To the green hills over yonder, whore eternal
tents are spread,
And no pension bills aye vetoed, in the domains
of the dead,
Where justice is jester, and where glor.
cOuntcrsgns
The mustcr-roll of freedom us the century de.
t. clnes:
Yes, child, to that Republic where no partisan
is found
Where the private is promoted and the poten-
tate discrowned
Our loved one now is journeying; and as for
you and me
1t matters not-the pottersflcld our heritage
may be;
The future frowns and tllreutens but, Thank
God, it cannot mar
The glory that we garnered when your father
went to war;
-NdtiOual YriJut.e.